As Brian Fallon approached his 40th birthday last January, he was thinking long and hard about what type of music was going to define the second half of his artistic life. “Hitting 40, you take stock: ‘How much time do I got left?’” he says, calling from his home in …
Read More »Why Conway Twitty Is the Butt of 'Family Guy' Jokes
With a voice as deep as his pompadour was high, Conway Twitty scored 55 Number One country hits by 1990, with his biggest, “Hello Darlin’,” released 50 years ago on March 23rd, 1970. Its spoken introduction — delivered in a come-hither tone by Twitty — remains one of the most …
Read More »That Epic Time Kenny Rogers Played With Phish
In June 2012, Bonnaroo broke its attendance record, selling 100,000 tickets. The four-day, camping-only Tennessee festival featured Radiohead, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Phish, Childish Gambino, Ludacris, Santigold — and, maybe most surprisingly, Kenny Rogers. The festival had a history of booking left-field country veterans at its smaller “Other Tent,” including …
Read More »Luck Reunion 2020 Revived as Free Livestream
Following its cancellation alongside many other marquee spring events due to the spread of COVID-19, Luck Reunion will live on in 2020 as a virtual festival under the name “Til Further Notice” and featuring many of the performers originally slated to participate this year. The free livestream, filmed by many …
Read More »Jason Isbell Wrestles With Inaction in Moody New Song 'What've I Done to Help'
Jason Isbell has released “What’ve I Done to Help,” the latest track off his forthcoming album Reunions, recording with his longtime backing band the 400 Unit. Isbell’s forthcoming album was once again produced by Dave Cobb, his collaborator on each of his albums since 2013’s Southeastern. At nearly seven minutes …
Read More »Jamey Johnson Announces Headlining Tour With Whiskey Myers
Jamey Johnson may not have any new music on the horizon (as far as anyone knows), but that doesn’t keep the baritone country singer off the road. On Monday he announced a new string of dates with rising country-rock band Whiskey Myers. The 12 shows kick off May 6th in …
Read More »Eric Church's CRS Keynote Q&A: 5 Things We Learned
“We all are in this room because music touched us in some way,” Eric Church told a crowd of radio programmers gathered for a Q&A with radio personality Lon Helton during Country Radio Seminar in Nashville on Thursday, in a conversation called “Chasing Creativity.” In addition to letting slip some …
Read More »Why Was Chris Stapleton Singing at Tyler Perry's Madea Play?
On Friday, Chris Stapleton gave a performance in Nashville that received a whole arena’s worth of hallelujers. The singer was in attendance at Tyler Perry‘s Madea Farewell Tour stop in Nashville when he surprised the crowd by standing up and giving a brief rendition of his signature song “Tennessee Whiskey.” …
Read More »Aubrie Sellers Gets Optimistic in New Song 'Lucky Charm'
On February 7th, Aubrie Sellers will unveil Far From Home, the follow-up to her 2016 debut album New City Blues, which was released four years ago this week. Sellers continues to cover a wide range of musical and emotional territory with the advance tracks from the forthcoming LP —the latest, …
Read More »Keith Urban on Why Country Stars Are Flocking to Vegas to Play Residencies
Keith Urban is sitting on a balcony overlooking the stage at the Colosseum in Las Vegas, the site of his new show, and acknowledging a simple fact: he never really wanted to do a residency. Four or five nights a week in the same place, à la Celine Dion’s years-long …
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